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About Joyce Clark

Contact information for Councilmember Joyce Clark
Home: 623-772-9795
Cell: 602-320-3422
Office: 623-930-2249
Please call between the hours of 9 AM - 5 PM
Email:
clarkjv@aol.com
jclark@glendaleaz.com
Joyce Clark is a 49 year resident of Glendale. She has a BA in History and Education and graduated from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. Her past careers include teacher of high school history, small business ownership of a book store, a professional ceramist and was the founder of a retail craft gallery. Joyce and her husband, Charles, have three children and seven grandchildren.

Joyce was first elected as your Yucca district Councilmember in 1992 and served Glendale and the Yucca district from 1992 to 1996. Joyce took a four year break from public service when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s to personally care for her. In 2000 she successfully ran again for Yucca district councilmember as a write in candidate against the incumbent. She is the only candidate in Arizona to achieve a write in victory over an incumbent. She was your voice for the Yucca district for 16 years.

Joyce retired in December, 2012, and as a private citizen Joyce did many of the things she never had the time to pursue. Two of those are the tender care and feeding of her koi pond and blog writing on issues in Glendale, Arizona.

In March of 2016, Joyce announced that she would leave retirement and run for the Yucca district council seat in Glendale. Once again Joyce defeated an incumbent and on December 13, 2016 she took office as the Yucca district councilmember for another four year term, ending in December of 2020.

Joyce is the only elected official in the State of Arizona to have defeated an incumbent as a write-in candidate and then to defeat a second, different incumbent as a candidate.

In a previous blog I shared the speculation that,upon the recommendation of Michael Reinsdorf, Managing Member and Co-Founder of the International Facilities Group, LLC (IFG), the City of Glendale hired Beacon Sports to negotiate with any and all potential buyers of the Coyotes. George Fallar, in his blog, www.nebulousverbosity.com, has fleshed out a great deal of information about Beacon Sports.

It’s time to revisit Beacon Sports. We know that the City hired them to produce a report, Survey of Professional Sports Venue Agreements – January 2011. There remains speculation about Beacon’s involvement in the Moyes bankruptcy. It appeared that IFG did not want to get involved in the bankruptcy and Michael Reinsdorf may have suggested the use of Beacon.

Why does any of this matter? Well, in 2005 suit was filed against Beacon Sports, IFG and Michael Reinsdorf by West Coast Arena Ventures, LLC in the Superior Court of California. That is fact. Since I do not know the disposition of the suit, I will use “allegedly” liberally.

Two groups, The Schwartz Group and John Cambianica Associates Architects formed West Coast Arena Ventures, LLC and hired Beacon to evaluate the project’s potential and to assist in development of the project. Allegedly, Gerald Sheehan, Managing Director of Beacon, signed a confidentially and non-compete clause with West Coast in pursuit of the development of a sports complex “in the High Desert of Southern California” (from filed complaint, page 3).

The suit then goes on to allege that Beacon presented the project to Michael Reinsdorf and IFG allegedly shared material confidential information without having Reinsdorf or IFG sign a confidentiality/non-compete agreement. In the complaint Reinsdorf is alleged to have met in person on behalf of IFG with officials from the City of Palmdale to present what was essentially West Coast’s project. It is claimed in the suit that as a result West Coast lost a business opportunity with Palmdale as a result. All of this information is readily available.

So what does this have to do with the City of Glendale? We know that Glendale hired Beacon
Sports to do a study in 2011 to provide a positive rationale for the Hulsizer deal. That deal included the City’s purchase of parking rights for $100M. We know that Glendale already has a business relationship with Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the White Sox and one of the tenants of Camelback Ranch, a city owned facility. We know that the City hired IFG to manage construction of Jobing.com arena. We know that, allegedly, Beacon Sports, breached a previous confidentiality/non-compete agreement in 2004-05.

Who is to say that if the City has indeed hired Beacon Sports to negotiate a sale of the Coyotes, whether Beacon Sports would share information with a Reinsdorf?? If the Coyotes end up being purchased by a Reinsdorf, it should be examined very carefully. Based upon the original Reinsdorf proposal to buy the Coyotes, they wanted an “opt out” clause of 5 years. That is not enough time to build the kind of fan base needed to make the team viable. From all appearances the Coyotes would be moved. How many dedicated fans are willing to invest financially and emotionally in a team that could move?

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Interesting article Joyce. Michael Reinsdorf through IFG and their affiliate Vieste Energy LLC have been involved in a fairly lengthy list of developments in & around Glendale, from the aforementioned jobing.com arena to the Renaissance Glendale Hotel; Vieste with that renewable energy project from the landfill site west of 101 etc etc etc. When asked by a reporter I believe last year, Julie Frisoni, Glendale Spokesperson, basically said “no, no reason for concern” (that the Reinsdorfs seemed to have their fingers in a lot of pies in & around Glendale, possible conflict of interest).

Jerry Reinsdorf while acting as the Chief Negotiator for Major League Baseball’s move of the Montreal Expos to DC had it written into the Contract with the city & franchise ownership group pursuant to the construction of their $440M facility that IFG be retained as a “Consultant” at $3.7M. Michael had already collected app $100,000 on that receivable before the municipality stepped in & straightened it out, I believe sanctioning & fining IFG for impropriety in the acquisition of a contract in part from a public entity…. so yes, these “White Knights”, the Reinsdorfs, well, their armors dinged & darker than one might assume. Politically extremely well connected (the Bush family, GW through MLB, Republican Party ties & donations, to lobbyists & special interest groups in Georgetown, state wide in Arizona & elsewhere of course).

All that being said, better you should do a deal with the Devil you know than one you dont. Throughout this sorry episode, whats beyond apparent & obvious is that Glendales’ been forced to fight in a weight class well above their range. I think it would have been far more prudent to have employed the services of an outsider, someone like SportsCorp out of New York, there are a few serious players & heavy hitters available who’s services are available to municipalities and or ownership groups & leagues beyond the likes of the incestuous relationships between a Beacon, IFG/Reinsdorf/Kaites & the NHL. Rather late in the day Im afraid, something many were calling for way back in 2009, and now here we are.